The history of the papacy, its role and influence throughout history

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

The history of the papacy captivates many researchers and ordinary people. Therefore, we propose to study in detail the role of the supreme hierarch, which the Pope has always occupied at the head of the Roman Catholic Church. According to Catholic doctrine, it begins from the time of Peter and continues to the present day.

Time of Emperors

Let's start by examining the role of the papacy in the history of Medieval Europe. During the Early Church, the bishops of Rome did not have temporal power until the time of Constantine. In addition to the Roman, there were also Ostrogothic, Byzantine and Frankish papacies. Over time, it consolidated its territorial claims over part of the peninsula known as the Papal States. Thereafter, the role of neighboring sovereigns was replaced by powerful Roman families during the saeculum obscurum. As important as the role of the Pope, the history of the papacy was not determined by him alone.

Caesarepapism

From 1048 to 1257, the papacy experienced growing conflict with the leaders and churches of the Holy Roman and Byzantine Empire (Eastern Romanempire). The latter culminated in the schism between East and West, which divided the Western and Eastern Churches. In the years 1257-1377 the Pope, although he was a bishop in Rome, sometimes resided in other Italian cities and in Avignon. The return of the Popes to Rome after the Avignon Papacy was followed by the Western Schism. That is, the division of the Western Church between two and for some time three competing applicants. As follows from the history of the papacy of John Norwich, retold by him in a number of publications.

Patronism of the Arts

The Papacy is known for its artistic and architectural patronage, forays into European power politics and theological challenges to papal authority. After the start of the Protestant Reformation, the Reformation Papacy and the Papal Baroque led the Catholic Church through the Counter-Reformation. Popes during the era of revolution witnessed the largest confiscation of church property. The Rome question, which arose as a result of the unification of Italy, led to the loss of many states and the creation of the Vatican.

Historical roots

Catholics recognize the Pope as the successor to Saint Peter, whom Jesus designated as the "rock" on which the Church was to be built. Although Peter never held the title "Pope", Catholics recognize him as the first bishop of Rome. Official declarations of the Church indicate that the pontiffs occupy a position in the college of bishops similar to that which Peter held in the "college" of the apostles. He was the prince of the apostles, while the college of bishops is a distinct entity, considered by someas successor.

Many deny that Peter and those who claimed to be his immediate successors had universally recognized sovereignty over all early churches, citing instead that the Bishop of Rome was and remains "first among equals" as stated by the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in the 2nd century AD and again in the 21st century. However, what this form should take is a matter of debate and disagreement to this day between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, which were one Church for at least the first seven ecumenical councils before the formal schism over papal primacy.

Many of the bishops of Rome in the first three centuries of the Christian era were obscure figures. Several people died as martyrs during the persecution. Most of them engaged in intense theological disputes with other bishops.

Origins

According to the "History of the Papacy" by S. G. Lozinsky, the legend of the victory of Constantine I at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312) connects his vision of chi-ro and the text in sign signs in the sky, and also reproduces this symbol on the shields of his troops. The following year, Constantine and Licinius proclaimed tolerance for Christianity with the Edict of Milan, and in 325, Constantine convened and presided over the First Council of Nicaea, the first Ecumenical Council. However, this has little to do with the Pope, who did not even attend the council; in fact, the first bishop of Rome to be simultaneously called the Pope is Damasus I (366–84). Moreover, between 324 and 330, Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empirefrom Rome to Byzantium, a former Greek city on the Bosporus. The power of Rome was transferred to Byzantium, which later, in 330, became Constantinople, and today - Istanbul.

Although the "Donation of Constantine" never happened, Constantine gave the Lateran Palace to the Bishop of Rome, and around 310 AD construction began on a Constantine basilica in Germany called Aula Palatina.

The Emperor also established the Old St. Peter's Basilica, or Constantine Basilica, St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, on the burial site of St. Peter, as is customary for the Christian community of Rome after his conversion to Christianity, as follows from the "History of the Papacy" by Gergeus E.

Ostrogothic Papacy

The Ostrogothic period lasted from 493 to 537. This time can be called the beginning of the history of the papacy in the Middle Ages. The election of a pontiff in March 483 was the first time that there was no Western Roman emperor. The Papacy was heavily influenced by the Ostrogothic Kingdom unless the Pope was directly appointed by the Ostrogothic King. The choice and administration of the popes during this period was influenced by Atalaric and Theodadad. This period ended with the (re)conquest of Rome by Justinian I during the Gothic War, the inauguration of the Byzantine pontiff (537–752). This stage in the history of the papacy is extremely important.

The role of the Ostrogoths became clear during the first split. When on November 22, 498, two men were elected Pope. The subsequent triumph of Pope Symmachus (498–514) over Antipas Laurentius is the firsta recorded example of simony in the history of the Pope. Symmachus also established the practice of popes naming his successors, which persisted until an unpopular choice was made in 530, and strife continued until the election in 532 of John II, the first to rename himself succession.

Byzantine papacy

This papacy was a period of Byzantine dominance from 537 to 752 when the popes required the approval of the Byzantine emperors for episcopal consecrations, and many pontiffs were chosen from apokrisations (connections from the pope to the emperor) or residents of Byzantine Greece, Syria or Sicily. Justinian I conquered the Italian Peninsula in the Gothic War (535–54) and appointed the next three Popes, which will be continued by his successors and then delegated to the Exarchate of Ravenna.

The Duchy of Rome was a Byzantine district in the Exarchate of Ravenna ruled by an imperial functionary with the title of Dux. Within the exarchate, the two main districts were the country near Ravenna, where the exarch was the center of the Byzantine opposition to the Lombards, and the Duchy of Rome, which covered the lands of Latium north of the Tiber and Campania in the south as far as the Garigliano. There the pope himself was the soul of the opposition.

In 738, the Lombard duke Transamund of Spolete captured the castle of Gallese, which protected the road to Perugia. With a large payment, Pope Gregory III forced the duke to return the castle to him.

The imperial crown, once held by the Carolingian emperors, was contested between their broken heirs and the local rulers; no one emerged victorious until Otto I,Holy Roman Emperor did not invade Italy. Italy became a constituent kingdom of the Holy Roman Empire in 962, from which point the emperors were Germans. As the emperors strengthened their positions, the northern Italian city-states were divided into Guelphs and Ghibellines. Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor, discovered three opposing popes while visiting Rome in 1048 due to the unprecedented actions of Pope Benedict IX. He overthrew all three and installed his preferred candidate, namely Pope Clement II, as we know from a work written by Gergeus.

Popes vs Caesars

History of the papacy from 1048 to 1257 will continue to be marked by conflict between them and the Holy Roman Emperor. First of all, a dispute about investments, a dispute about who - the pope or the emperor - could appoint bishops in the Empire. Henry IV's walk to Canossa in 1077 to meet Pope Gregory VII (1073–85), although not dispositional in the context of a larger dispute, has become legendary. Although the emperor renounced any right to invest in the Concordat of Hearts (1122), the problem escalated again.

As Lozinsky's "History of the Papacy" says, the longstanding divisions between East and West also led to the East-West Schism and the Crusades. The first seven Ecumenical Councils were attended by both western and eastern prelates, but growing doctrinal, theological, linguistic, political and geographical differences ineventually led to mutual accusations and excommunication. The speech of Pope Urban II (1088–99) at the Council of Clermont in 1095 was the rallying cry for the First Crusade.

Gallization of the papacy

After seventy years in France, the papal curia was naturally French in its attitude and, to a large extent, in its state. There is some tension in Rome. The crowd of Romans, said to be in a threatening mood, demanded a pope, or at least an Italian one. In 1378, a conclave elected an Italian from Naples as Pope Urban VI. His intransigence in office soon alienated the French cardinals. And the behavior of the Roman crowd allowed them to say in retrospect that his election was invalid, voted under duress. This is beautifully described in Lozinsky's book "History of the Papacy".

The French cardinals went to their own conclave, where they elected one of their number, Robert of Geneva. He took the name Clement VII. By 1379 he had returned to the Papal Palace in Avignon, while Urban VI remained in Rome.

Western split

This was the beginning of a difficult period from 1378 to 1417, which Catholic scholars call the "Western Schism" or the "Great Antipope Controversy" (which some secular and Protestant historians call the "Second Great Schism"). when the parties within the Catholic Church were divided in their allegiance among the various contenders for the position of pope. The Council of Constance finally settled the dispute in 1417.

For a while there were even two papal curias and two cardinals, each electing a new pope for Rome or Avignon when death created a vacancy. Each pope lobbied for support between kings and princes who opposed each other, changing propriety according to political advantage. The history of the papacy has always been characterized by this.

In 1409 a council was convened in Pisa to deal with this problem. The council declared both existing popes schismatics and appointed a new one, Alexander V. But the existing popes were not persuaded to resign, so there were three popes in the church.

Another council was convened in 1414 in Constanta. In March 1415, the Pisan Pope John XXIII secretly hid from Constance; he was returned to captivity and deposed in May. Pope Gregory XII voluntarily resigned in July.

Avignon Pope Benedict XIII refused to come to Constance. Despite the personal visit of Emperor Sigismund, he did not consider resignation. The Council definitively deposed him in July 1417. But he went to Spain and continued to rule the church as pope, creating new cardinals and issuing decrees, until his death in 1423.

The council in Constanta, having finally cleared the field of popes and anti-popes, elected Pope Martin V as pope in November.

The Age of Colonialism

Popes have been more often called upon to resolve disputes between rival colonial powers than to resolve complex theological disputes. The discovery by Columbus in 1492 upset the unstable relationship between the kingdoms of Portugal and Castile, whose struggle for possession of the coloni althe territories were governed by the papal bulls of 1455, 1456 and 1479. Alexander VI replied with three bulls, dated 3 and 4 May, which were very favorable to Castile; the third Inter Caetera (1493) gave Spain a monopoly to conquer and colonize the Americas.

According to Eamon Duffy, “Renaissance papacy evokes images of Hollywood spectacle, decadence and attraction. Contemporaries looked at "Renaissance Rome" the same way we now see Nixon's Washington, a city of whores with spending bills and political bribery where everyone and everything had a price where nothing and no one could be trusted. The popes themselves seemed to set the tone. For example, Leo X said, "Let's enjoy the papacy as God gave it to us." Some of these popes have taken mistresses and fathers, engaged in intrigue or even murder. Alexander VI had four recognized children: Cesare Borgia, Lucrezia Borgia, Gioffre Borgia and Giovanni Borgia before he became Pope.

Unification of Italy

Florence has been the provisional capital of Italy since 1865. After the defeat of the papal troops in 1870, the Italian government moved to the banks of the Tiber a year later. Victor Emmanuel settled in the Quirinal Palace. For the first time in thirteen centuries, Rome became the capital of a united Italy.

Creating the Vatican

The popes of the 19th and 20th centuries exercised their spiritual authority with increasing vigor in all aspects of religious life. For example, in the most important pontificate of Pope Pius IX (1846–1878), for the first time in history, there was a firmestablished papal control over the activities of Catholic missionaries throughout the world.

The reign of Pius Eleventh was marked by lively activity in all directions and the release of many important documents, often in the form of an encyclical. In diplomatic affairs, Pius was first assisted by Pietro Gasparri and, after 1930, by Eugenio Pacelli (who succeeded him as Pope Pius XII). The masterpiece of Cardinal Gasparri was the Lateran Treaty (1929), concluded with the Nazis. But the opinion of the Vatican and Mussolini regarding the education of young people still differed. This culminated in a strong papal letter (Non abbiamo bisogno, 1931). Which argued that it was impossible to be both a fascist and a Catholic. Relations between Mussolini and the Pope were not very good all the time, as described in detail in E. Gergey's book "History of the Papacy" (m 1996).

Interwar time

The Papacy before the war alternately welcomed and condemned the fascist movements in Europe. Pius XI's Mit Brennender Sorge, an encyclical condemning the opinion that "raises a race, or a people, or a state, or a certain form of state … above their standard value and deifies them to the level of idolatry," was written in German instead of Latin. In addition, it was read as follows: in German churches on Palm Sunday 1937. The book "History of the Papacy" describes this in detail.

War, post-war and today

Although after many years of restoration, the Churchflourished in the West and in most developing countries, it faced the most severe persecution in the East. Sixty million Catholics fell under Soviet-dominated regimes, tens of thousands of priests and religious figures were killed in 1945, and millions were deported to the Soviet and Chinese Gulags. The communist regimes in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and China all but destroyed the Roman Catholic Church in their countries. The modern history of the papacy is moving in the same direction as it has been for the last century: the gradual transformation into a commercial organization, liberalization and the adoption of Western political trends still determine the historical development of the Vatican.